Beta 1.8
Additions General *A new achievement: "Kill a skeleton with an arrow at 50 meters". *New Creative game mode. *New Mojang logo splash screen *New particle effects. **Performing a critical hit on any mob will cause 'sparks' to fly. **Explosion particles are now shockwaves instead of smoke. **Tiny stationary bubble particles can be seen when underwater. **Fog is now thicker and darker deep underground, and gives off particles. Due to this, the void appears black. Gameplay *New combat mechanics. **Hold-to-charge bows. **Critical hits. **Players can parry with a sword by holding Right Mouse **Hostile mobs perform attack animations. **Mobs killed by players drop tiny flashing experience orbs that add to your experience bar. *New food system. **There is now a food meter. ***Food no longer heals directly but indirectly: if the food meter is above 90%, heals Half Heart.svg every 4 seconds. **All food (except mushroom stew) are now stackable. **Food takes 1.6 seconds to consume, accompanied with an animation. *Added sprinting World Generation *Generated structures **Villages **Strongholds **Abandoned mineshafts **Ravines *New, fractal-based biome code; added and removed some biomes while making all of them more vast than before. **Rivers flowing through/in between biomes. **Ocean biomes, that are deeper and much more vast than before. **Mountain biome **Swamp **Snow in taiga and tundra biomes do not generate for technical reasons. They return in Beta 1.9. *New ocean floor; random mix of sand, dirt, and clay. **Because of this, clay is much more common. Blocks & Items *Stone bricks **Stone brick slabs **Stone brick stairs *Brick slabs and brick stairs *Fence gates *Glass panes *Iron bars *Melons *Food **Melons **Raw chicken **Raw beef **Cooked chicken **Steak, which has cooked porkchop's old texture. Cooked porkchops' new texture is a tan shade of the same sprite *Ender pearls *New seeds for farming: pumpkin seeds and melon seeds that produce pumpkins and melons respectively. Mobs *Enderman **As a placeholder, Endermen used Zombie sounds. **Silverfish **Cave spiders Changes General *Changes with debug-view (F3) **Mobs are no longer visibly labeled with their entity ID **The world's numeric seed is displayed in a field below player position. **Changing fog by hotkey now requires debug-view to be open in addition with pressing F. *The version tag appears in-game again. **The 'Multiplayer join screen' has been improved, mainly with a server list. *Main menu/options changes **The main menu's background is now an animated scene. **The version tag is now displayed on the bottom-left rather than the top-left **New sliders for Field of View and Brightness **4 new entries in control list ***"Attack", "Use Item", and "Pick Block" can now be remapped. ***Player list in SMP, defaults to Tab ↹. *The game's coding now allows for mods to more easily change the (map) height. *Players with the OP position on a server can switch back and forth between survival and creative mode. Gameplay *New improved lighting **Day/night cycles no longer require chunk updates and is a smooth transition **The lighting on a block is given a tint based on the most prominent source of light ***Reddish from artificial light sources ***Blue from Moonlight ***Total darkness keeps the same black tint ***Sunlight gives the same white tint **Artificial light now gives a very subtle 'flicker'. *Improved sunrise and sunset. **Clouds change color during sunrise and sunset to match the sky color. **Horizon, specifically haze changes color more vividly during sunset and sunrise. *Cloud height raised to the top of the map, so clouds can no longer phase through blocks. *Cloud movement syncs with the game's time. *Rain and snow both render faster *Armor bar moved to above hearts, due to food bar. *Holding the left mouse button with a weapon will now only swing once. *Holding the right mouse button to place blocks is slightly slower than before. *Shift+Clicking the output item in a crafting square will craft all the items at once, and automatically places them in the inventory. Blocks & Items *Eating any raw food or rotten flesh has a chance to give the player food poisoning which makes the hunger bar decrease three times as fast. *Shears can now collect tall grass and vines *Both Wooden and Stone pressure plates can now be placed on fences. *New texture for moss stone. *Improved chest model with a 3D lock. *Improved model for torches placed on walls. *User-placed leaf blocks no longer decay Mobs *Passive mobs will randomly flee if attacked by the player or other mobs (such as wolves). *Zombies drop rotten flesh instead of feathers. *The snout on pigs now protrude from their head. *Skeletons now hold full-size bows. *Player-to-mob damage decreased by half a heart. *Arrows that hit a mob visually "stick" into the mob rather than just disappear. **Skeleton arrows originate from about their eyes to the bow, instead of above the head. *Animals no longer despawn which makes it possible to capture them. Removed *Old Terrain was removed *The Far Lands were removed *Humans Commands, hacks and codes were all removed, except for its AI but then in a later update the AI was removed. Fixes 5 Bugs Fixed *The Shift+Click crash bug from 1.8pre2 is fixed. *Fixed Redstone circuits not working after /time set x glitch is now fixed in SMP. *Destroying boats and minecarts now creates particles. *Ghast attack sounds are fixed in SMP. *The Far Lands had been removed; there is now only void. *Fixed cactus and trapdoor items being too big